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Sidewalk Labs is under pressure to explain its smart city dream
Sidewalk Labs, the part of Alphabet focused on smart cities, is behind schedule. The company had planned to publish its grand vision for Quayside, a 12-acre site on Toronto's industrial waterfront, in the fall of 2018. Last June, however, the first version of its crucial Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) was pushed back to early 2019. "It will be a comprehensive document, but still a work-in-progress," a press release clarified at the time. A complete MIDP would then be published in "spring 2019," the company said, following a public roundtable.
The draft version of the MIDP is yet to materialize. And for many, it's been an agonizing wait. Waterfront Toronto, a public steward created by the Canadian government, announced its search for an innovation and funding partner back in March 2017. Sidewalk Labs put its name forward with a beautiful "vision" document that suggested, among other head-turning ideas, buildings made from timber, a flexible thermal grid and subterranean tunnels for deliveries and garbage disposal. The company won the bid in October and has spent the past 18 months researching those ideas, consulting with experts and gathering public feedback.
[...] On Tuesday, a group of concerned citizens launched #BlockSidewalk, a campaign dedicated to informing the public "what the project is, and why it should be reset." Julie Beddoes, a waterfront resident and #BlockSidewalk supporter, told reporters at city hall, "In Toronto, [Sidewalk Labs] is aiming to take over the functions of government -- do we really need a coup d'état to get transit and nice paving stones?"
Previously: Google Launches "Sidewalk Labs" Spinoff Company
Toronto's Eastern Waterfront: Google's City of the Future?
Sidewalk Toronto Has Only One Beneficiary, and It Is not Toronto
Related: How Pervasive is Google in our Online Life?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday April 11 2019, @11:18PM
Surprise: Google isn't good at a highly competitive, well established endeavor that frequently involves politics and favor trading.
If they partnered with a well established local player and let the locals handle the basics of the bricks, mortar and payola, they could work in their vision of what makes a 12 acre "smart city" site special, and still fail miserably because land development is competitive and risky. Not to mention the fact that Google tends to have a blind spot when it comes to creepy, and creepy isn't really a big selling point for public spaces.
I think this is a logical followup to the fiasco that was Google Fiber... utilities don't really play nice, either.
🌻🌻 [google.com]